I have just sent in my nominations for Lib Dem Blog of the Year and I wanted to explain why I nominated the four blogs that I did. First of all I wanted to point out my personal criteria. I only considered blogs that on average are above 400 words per piece and are in my opinion thought-provoking and base their blogging on an opinion rather than just reporting news. My opinion on what blogs are is writing something that makes me both think and helps me understand why another person has that point of view. That was my criteria. ...
38 Degrees have been lobbying for tough action to be taken about lobbying . People ought to have stopped and thought about what lobbying actually is before calling for it to be regulated. It stems from standing in the lobby of parliament, seeking to influence policy as people in days gone past stood in the antechamber waiting to petition a head of state. The lobbyist 38 Degrees wanted to stop were ones acting on behalf of companies. Companies are just one aspect of civil society however, and it seems now that their wish has been granted the penny has dropped. ...
[IMG: 20130822_221552.jpg] [IMG: 20130822_221649.jpg] It was like a scene from a Michael Moore documentary. There was a divided community, a heavy police presence in place to protect vested interests, fear, corporate interests and a large group of people protesting peacefully but who are viewed as a danger. I was at the anti-fracking protest in Balcombe. It is the sort of English village which would be used in the filming of whodunnits. Then there is the contrast with the protester's tents which may have been poorly structured but their ideas were not, as I discovered. When I arrived at the station ...
Civil liberties. It's the issue that unites Lib Dems like no other. While you'll find a range of views within the party on big issues that matter more to the voters — such as the economy or the NHS or even tuition fees — personal freedom, the right to live your life as you choose, is at the heart of liberalism. Nick Clegg made his name within the Lib Dems as shadow home affairs spokesman by proposing measures like the Freedom Bill and threatening to go to prison rather than carry an ID card. Yet civil liberties is also the ...
Ethnic Minority Liberal Democrats (EMLD) have launched an online website to contribute to the Lib Dem's immigration and asylum consultation. The Party established a working group under former minister Sir Andrew Stunell which has now [...]
Mark Pack has written an article today looking at the charge that "the Liberal Democrats have a policy on goldfish". He argues - correctly - that, as far as the party did have a policy on goldfish, it formed part of a policy on animal welfare in general. And much of it has since been passed into law and is now never questioned: What Lib Dem conference really agreed on goldfish In autumn 2003 the Liberal Democrats passed an animal welfare motion at the federal conference in Brighton. The accompanying policy paper Respecting All Animals, which following the passage of ...
On Tuesday evening, I attended the latest committee meeting of the West End Community and Sports Hub (WECSH) that took place at the Riverside Pavilion. We had a hugely productive meeting, discussing future management of the pavilion and further improvements to assist sporting activity in the West End. Yesterday afternoon, I firstly had a site meeting in Wilkie's Lane with Rev Leszek Wiecaszek, Parish Priest of St Joseph's Church, the Chair of St Josephs Parish Pastoral Council and two representatives of the City Council's Roads Maintenance Partnership. I recently raised concerns from residents including members of the church about the ...
Last year I posted a video of that punk classic Jeremy Thorpe is Innocent by The Surprises. Today a member of the group (Chickenbone John) left a comment on that post, giving the exciting news that the band is to play together in Birmingham on 5 September: Re-union gig for The Surprises..supporting our old mates Dangerous Girls. Personally I'm amazed that we are all still alive..let alone talking to one another..but thanks to the miracle of Facebook..it's happening. I know, it's all a bit sad, a bunch of 50 year old punks..but what the hell!!There are not a lot of ...
Contractors working on behalf of Electricity North West will be undertaking works to excavate a joint bay in the carriageway for a new electricity supply on Styal Road, Gatley, between the junctions with Styal Grove and Osborne Grove. These works require the use of two-way signals and the works will take place on 6th September 2013
There can be only one winner of our Headline of the Day Award: The Sun.
According to the usually reliable Vote UK Forum there are four local council by-elections this evening - in Doncaster, Lincoln and Scarborough x2. And for once the Lib Dems are standing in all four - an improvement on the last time the wards were fought, where the party failed to find a candidate in the safe Labour Doncaster ward of Askern Spa. This time in Askern Spa the Lib Dem candidate is one-time youngest councillor in the UK, Adrian McLeay - a former Lib Dem councillor in New Malden's Burlington Ward which was a predecessor to the ill fated Beverley. ...
If you're sick of hearing about this, just skip it. If you haven't sent your nominations off yet, then consider this a reminder. I know I've been banging on about this a lot this week, but I wanted to put in a post in the morning, afternoon and evening so that most people would get the chance to see it. Two weeks ago, I introduced this year's Liberal Democrat Voice Awards and invited you to submit your nominations by Friday 23rd August. That deadline is now hurtling towards us like a herd of stampeding elephants. There has been a steady ...
I was intrigued by the launch of a new book 'Liberal Democrats Do God' authored by a collection of prominent MPs and peers. I haven't brought the book yet so will not prejudge it, but [...]
[IMG: GCSE RESULT 2012] They say the tensest moment for any father is driving mum and babe home from the hospital – recently experienced by the Duke of Cambridge. From first-hand experience, I'd say that witnessing events running up to and during an emergency Caesarian probably top simple driving. Whichever it is, I have to say that the 30 minute wait while youngster goes into school to get her GCSE results has to be a damned close third! photo by: Tretherras [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
The issue of David Miranda has obtained quite a bit of public attention. That of Leah McGrath Goodman is perhaps more important, but has not managed to get anything like the same attention. In both of these cases the questions are ones about whether agents of the state are abusing their position. In the Miranda case because "Reasonable Suspicion" is not needed then the actions were probably
It is not often I do this but I am using the Daily Mail as a good example of journalism in a story in which the BBC have failed. Here is the BBC online coverage of the Chelsea Manning story about her starting the process of gender reassignment the day after she was sentenced to 35 years for her role in spilling details that embarrassed her country to Wikileaks, while serving in the US Army. Throughout they constantly refer to Chelsea, as she is now known, by male pronouns. Come on BBC! It isn't that hard even the Daily Mail ...
The government's proposed changes to secondary school accountability carry the risk that pupils may no longer take all three science subjects at GCSE, leading to a fall in the numbers studying physics and chemistry and a growing gender divide The headlines around this year's GCSE results have focused on the fall in the proportion of students getting top grades. But for organisations like the Wellcome Trust, involved in science education, there's another story in the mix. Last week's A-level results showed that the healthy growth in numbers taking physics, chemistry and biology at A-level has continued for the fifth year ...
Boris Johnson plans to concrete over an area of outstanding natural importance in west London despite his new consultation document failing to make a single reference to the nature reserve. The London Mayor's determination to flatten [...]
Being a Lib Dem Minister in Government has both its pleasures and its downsides. One of the downsides is that if anything hits the headlines concerning civil liberties there are some in the Party who instantly assume that Lib Dem ministers have been passive and quiescent whilst human rights are trampled under foot. The case of David Miranda, and more broadly what we are doing regarding the use of the Schedule 7 powers which were used to detain him at Heathrow is a good case in point. I've read with interest the views of a wide range of Liberal Democrats, ...
[Originally posted at The Conversation, 22/08/13] [IMG: Duck] With independent journalism increasingly under threat, will academics be the next set of critical voices to be targeted? A report calling for research and evidence to have a reduced role in public policy, issued yesterday by a right-wing think-tank, suggests this process is already under way. These criticisms come after successive governments have sought to encourage academics to leave their ivory towers and influence the wider world. Right now, many academics around the country are knee-deep in final preparations for the next round of research funding. This time around we've the additional ...
The issue of recall raises its head today as Bill Walker, the MSP for Dunfermline, has been found guilty, as the BBC reports, of 23 charges of domestic abuse over a 28 year period. The 71-year-old, from Alloa, had denied 23 charges of assault and one breach of the peace, but was found guilty of all charges at Edinburgh Sheriff Court. Walker, who will be sentenced next month, has been urged to stand down as the independent MSP for Dunfermline. He had been elected in 2011 as an SNP MSP, but was suspended by the party after the allegations emerged. ...
What have we contributed as part of the Coalition government? Well one success (but there have been many others) is enacting the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 which gives gay and lesbian people the same right to marry as heterosexual couples. I have severe doubts that a Tory majority government could have introduced this reform! Whilst Britain has progressed to an open society where LGBT people are protected by law, many other countries like Iran, Nigeria and notably Russia have not. However liberal Britain did not just happen overnight, and the changes in our society's attitudes have taken many ...
As the Economist explains: The two researchers came to this conclusion after looking at 486 Americans, 223 Argentinians and 793 Danes. They collected data on their volunteers' strength by measuring the circumference of the flexed biceps of an individual's dominant arm. (Previous work has shown that this is an accurate proxy for strength.) They then [...]
Thu 22nd
13:55
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Hooray. The latest book I've contributed to is
Thu 22nd
13:53Nice to see a Lib Dem peer who knows about anti-terrorism legislation saying something sensible
(Shock: not Alex Carlisle.) Fmr DPP Lord MacDonald tells #wato Schedule 7 "problematic"&"not very practical in terms of catching people involved in terrorism." — Chris Mason (@ChrisMasonBBC) August 22, 2013
Step back in time at the Botanic Gardens Victorian Gala on Sunday 25th of August. You will be transported back in time to 1875 when the Gardens first opened. Organised by the Botanic Gardens Community Association, the Victorian Gala is set to be a fun day out for all the family (Victorian costume optional).
Here's today's hand-picked selection that caught my interest... David Miranda's detention - what do the public think? 1-in-5 Con/Ukip voters support a de facto police state. Interesting YouGov finding! See final para here: http://bit.ly/13I7cpq Richard Dawkins attacks Muslim bigots, not just Christian ones. If only his enemies were as brave » The Spectator Don't agree with every pt in @NickCohen4′s excellent article, but *applause* > Forget Dawkins, fight real fanatics http://bit.ly/16yNIl0 i1.wp.com 84% of employers, 88% of employees are satisfied with their apprenticeship programmes http://bit.ly/16yD8un (via @markpack) Would Only Fools and Horses and Dad's Army be made today? | Television ...
Wednesday: Cool as a Cumberpatch I have to confess that I am disappointed that Cap'n Clegg's response to the detention of David Miranda and the destruction of data at the Graniad has been measured rather than robust. I can understand it - and Nick Thornton makes a good case for considering the two cases separately - but I'm still less than happy that the case for Civil Liberties has to be made by a silent protest from a famous actor when there are Liberal Democrats in government who should be doing so. A bit less measured and an bit more ...
If you fancy the prospect of working with me, Sir Bob Russell MP and other Liberal Democrats in Colchester, then you might want to look at this job advert for a new organiser and parliamentary assistant.
Tomorrow, nominations close in the "Liberal Democrat Voice Awards". These have been thrillingly renamed, relaunched and expanded, but for me the greatest pleasure in them remains celebrating the brilliant flow of ideas by a carnival of Lib Dem voices on their own blogs. The shortlist I most look forward to is that for Liberal Democrat Blog Post of the Year - both because that always introduces me to some great writing I've not seen before, and because it's so much easier to read a hand-picked selection of posts than read through the complete shortlisted blogs, Twitter pages or Facebook timelines. ...
[IMG: Zoolander Phone] The BBC is reporting that the Government is so afraid of prisoners having access to concealed mobile phones, they want to introduce a ban. UK officials are considering banning the sale of small mobile phones designed to resemble car key fobs. A government spokesman told the BBC that it was discussing the issue with the National Trading Standards Board and the Serious Organised Crime Agency. It follows a report by the Times suggesting some of the Chinese-made products were being advertised with prisoners in mind. Having a mobile phone in jail is a criminal offence. The article ...
Operation Black Vote has an interesting interview with Anuja Prashar, Lib Dem Euro candidate in London, covering a whole range of issues, including her views of the future of the European Union. Here's a sample: Prashar, an OBV graduate from the 2011 Parliamentary Shadowing Scheme, is rapidly making her political presence be felt. Having shadowed Baroness Ros Scott, former President of the Liberal Democrats with who she has maintained a relationship, Prashar feels she was given a unique and exceptional opportunity on OBV's scheme and was surrounded with like-minded people. During my time talking with her she consistently reiterated the ...
As my contribution to the Lib Dem Voice Awards, I've just put together a celebration of a great many posts from a great many other Lib Dem Blogs - so it seems an appropriate day to select my own latest 'greatest hits' package. Below you can find links and summaries for my best articles of the last year on politics, Doctor Who and one or two other subjects. Featuring What the Lib Dems Stand For, Liberal Quotations, Betrayal, Daleks and much more...! All showcasing posts written from the start of October last year to the end of August this year ...
Last week I came across this interesting article in The Economist on Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), which are having some success in reviving local economies. It prompts several thoughts about how to rebuild local communities. And, as I advocated in my recent blog on the poverty of ideas on the British Left (The unbearable lightness of British politics) , I think this offers the key to future progress in our society. But some ways of attempting this are more helpful than others. Here's what I think the problem is. Over the last generation our social, business and political networks have ...
[IMG: Goldfish. Photo courtesy of Eamon1. Some rights reserved http://www.sxc.hu/photo/656948] It's a fun barb to throw at the Liberal Democrats: the party's policy making process is so eccentric that it once decided to ban goldfish. The barb comes in various forms and not just from outside the party. Some members too also use it argue that the party's policy making process and/or party conference is in need of reform (and briefings by Lib Dem sources have been the trigger for some of the negative press coverage on the subject). The missing pieces in the story Yet it is an oddly ...
Oh, they have been busy bees at the Home Office this Summer. The Go Home vans, immigration checks at tube stations, not telling Nick Clegg what they're up to, it's amazing they've found time for anything else. On Tuesday they published their Twitter policy. While I'd like to think it was hastily drawn up in response to criticism of the way its account was used during the immigration spot checks, with statistics of how many people had been arrested were given along with disturbing photographs of people being bundled into vans, I'm not sure the wheels of bureaucracy turn that ...
The BBC report that a row has broken out as assembly members accuse ministers of failing to tackle delays in road and rail projects to boost the north Wales economy. They say that seven miles of single rail track is due to be doubled between Wrexham and Saltney Junction, part of a £36m Welsh government-funded project to improve the journey time between north and south Wales: It would allow trains to travel up to 90mph (114km/h) in sections. The work was due to be finished by early 2015 but Transport Minister Edwina Hart is now reviewing the plans following delays, ...
posted The Blood is The Life 21-08-2013 http://t.co/lubaegjewx on #dreamwidth (tags: (from twitter) dreamwidth ) Our female chauffeur has now taken to leaving the toilet seat up in defiance of @UKIP's Godfrey Bloom: http://t.co/sjXX1Gby6Q (tags: (from twitter) ) Torygraph review of the great British bake off note the final paragraph *approves* (tags: ) http://dftr.org.uk/quest.html Been through the Atos mill? Here's yr chance to respond http://t.co/ikfLR1GBGJ fill the questionnaire of yr treatment #ATAEdin (tags: (from twitter) ) What do the Liberal Democrats stand for? #LibDemValues | Chris Richards I'd really love to see the party live up to this. ...
There I was trying to work in a Pret-a-Manger underneath the London Shroud on Friday (sorry, that should read Shard), and this conversation next to me kept butting in. "I look at myself in the mirror and I don't recognise myself any more. I should have stayed 34." This was a conversation between an older man and a younger one, who must have been, say, 34. "You're at the perfect age, you know." "I don't know about that," said the younger one. "I wish I was 18 again." I thought about this conversation later, partly because it seemed to conceal ...
Polling firm YouGov has surveyed the British public on their attitudes to this week's big news story: the detention of David Miranda, partner of Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who's worked with Edward Snowden, the former US intelligence officer on whistleblowing / leaking details of the the surveillance activities of the US and British intelligence agencies. 'Public divided' is how YouGov's summarised it, pretty fairly. This in itself is surprising: generally the public favours 'national security' over 'individual liberty' when push comes to shove. This suggests the police's actions, possibly in themselves unlawful, have worried more than just the usual civil ...
An L19 resident was in touch recently about an odd phone call he received about his Council Tax. Apparently a company has been cold calling some people telling them that their property is in the wrong council tax band so they might be due a refund. The company then asks the resident to sign a contract which involves paying a fee and then a percentage of any refund won. The company's part of the deal is to try to get the refund. Now there's nothing illegal in any of this, as long as cool off periods are respected etc, but ...
Nobody in the Liberal Democrats is comfortable with the benefit cuts that are taking place at a UK level, and most of us recognise that mistakes have been made, not least in failing to exempt disabled adults from changes to housing benefit for spare bedrooms. What does grate however is Labour politicians' sanctimonious public opposition to these changes whilst failing to acknowledge that they initiated many of them, would have done the same if they had won in 2010 and will not reverse the reforms. Thank goodness therefore for Liam Byrne, who according to the Guardian, at least acknowledges that ...
I've had a few questions about the disappearance of the community artwork opposite St Michaels Church in Garston. This is/was a series of panels designed to celebrate the life and achievements of Garston born Jack Jones. The panels were on display on the bit of vacant land opposite the church (by the bridge). There was a bit of graffiti, and then a couple looked loose. But all of a sudden they were gone (leaving just the frame). Anyway, the good news is that they haven't just disappeared. They are in storage as people were worried about future damage and the ...
Ros reminds me that, two years or so ago, she received a phone call from a financial institution that shall remain nameless, offering her protection against identity theft. At the time, she questioned its necessity and rejected their 'generous' offer. And now, it turns out, it was fraudulent. The cover merely duplicated that already offered in the event of theft from a bank account. The expected cost of compensation? £1.5 billion. A dozen or so banks have signed up to the proposed settlement scheme, evidence of the scale of the mis-selling. And this leads one to ask the question, "At ...
For the benefit of Lib Dem members who read LDV I thought it useful to offer up a perspective on the current crisis as a contribution to understanding on the topic - especially important from a Coalition perspective given the UK Foreign Secretary's recent highly controversial pronouncements. Historically the military has had a major role in Egyptian society and its age-old pursuit of autonomy & independence - from the centuries of Mamluks to the post-independence military governments, and President Mubarak's Western-backed thirty-year de facto military rule. The state, whilst strong on 'security', is generally incompetent and corrupt, such that it ...
There's been a remarkable reversal in public comments about apprenticeships since the 2010 general election. Before May 2010, generally speaking people on the left frequently praised them whilst those in the Liberal Democrats or on the right tended not to have much to say about them. Since May 2010, the Lib Dems in particular frequently talk up the government's record in hugely increasing the number of apprentices whilst those on the left frequently implicitly knock apprenticeships. They don't directly rubbish them of course, but rather dismissively knock figures about employment as being puffed up by including apprenticeships as if the ...
It's a relief to see that Ramsgate is placed 5th and Margate 7th in a report listing the countries poorest coastal resorts. I would have thought with increasing crime, notoriety for drug abuse, we here in Thanet would have come top. I think how bad would things have been without the sterling efforts of Clive Hart, Bob Bayford and the now discredited Sandy Ezekiel. Celebrate! Things are on the up! Its official Skegness and Blackpool are the pits!
[IMG: The Duke William - Coventry Street, Stourbridge - pub sign] You know how it is. You're staying in someone's house. With half an hour to kill before bedtime, you pick up one of the books arranged around the spare room and idly leaf through it. This happened to me a month ago. Rather than "idly leaf" through the book, however, I got hooked on it and am now on the last few pages, having greedily devoured it (albeit at my normal snail's pace) over the last month. (Fortunately, my host was my mother, who was only too pleased to ...
The Dalhousie Building From the Curator of Museum Services at the University of Dundee: A new exhibition has opened in the DalhousieBuilding at the University of Dundee, featuring over 60 rarely seen prints from the University's fine art collections. They include works by major Scottish and international artists as well as staff and students from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design. The exhibition, entitled Making an Impact, has been staged by Museum Services as part of Print Festival Scotland to accompany the international print conference Impact 8 being held at the University later this month. Examples of numerous ...
[IMG: The Guardian | Billboard (A)] When a 91 year-old relative, known for his views marginally to the right of Ghengis Khan, started a conversation about the Miranda affair with the words: About this Manchester Guardian nonsense.... ...I knew it wasn't going to end well. ...Least said, soonest mended... photo by: observista [IMG: Post to Twitter] Tweet This Post
Yet again Nick Clegg has apparently forgotten that he is a Liberal-Democrat. This keeps happening. He'll probably remember in a bit. But why? I think I know why: He should follow David Miranda's example. While he was in detention, Miranda refused all drinks offered to him until he was able to get himself a drink [...]
As you are aware, we are currently working in the Avenue Road area of St Albans, installing new water mains to enable us to continue providing the local community with water for many years to come. We are carrying out the work in two phases. The first phase at the junction of St Peters Street, Harpenden Road, Stonecross and Avenue Road has been completed and the traffic restrictions have been removed. The second phase along Avenue Road is on schedule to be completed by the middle of November. The diversion is via Sandpit Lane, Lemsford Road, Hatfield Road and St ...
